There are three factors that may have worked against Chris Christie in the New Hampshire primary which led to his sixth place showing at the polls in the New Hampshire primary.

Christie, who staked his campaign on a strong finish in the primary, finished in sixth place with 8% of the vote and no delegates. The governor returned to New Jersey instead of heading to South Carolina where the next primary will be held on Feb. 20. Christie said that he would wait to see all the results from New Hampshire before making any decisions.

University of Southern New Hampshire professor of politics Dean Spiliotes said that Christie "clearly did not catch the wave" he thought he would get following his strong performance in the final GOP debate. He "seems to ho have softened up (Marco) Rubio but clearly not to his advantage. (Jeb) Bush and (John) Kasich and (Ted) Cruz all did better than him."

Christie also lost the momentum he had just before Christmas when he peaked in the polls at 9%. Subsequent polls showed Kasich picking up support which Spiliotes attributes to Kasich keeping an optimistic tone to his campaign. "Christie has been relentlessly negative," especially against Rubio which may have alienated some voted while "Bush just plodded along."

Trump may also have "out New York metropolitan area'd" Christie with a similar "straight shooter, tough telling it like it is" strategy and beat Christie at his own game, said Spiliotes. "Christie got really good reviews for his town hall meetings" often spending two hours talking to voters. Spiliotes saw Christie during a campaign stop and said he had a "good touch" with voters and listened to what they had to say.

Trump on Wednesday morning offered praise to Christie's campaign on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "I think that Chris did an amazing job in terms of the debate as a prosecuoter and he's a friend of mine. He actually called me last night and we had a long talk. He's a little disappointed because he did do a great job."